


What Are Friends For?

by scrappylittlegleek



Category: Supergirl (Comics), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst, Anxiety Attacks, Bisexual Kara Danvers, Dreams and Nightmares, F/F, Fluff, Friendship/Love, Lena Luthor Gets a Hug, Lena Luthor Needs a Hug, Lesbian Lena Luthor, Nightmares, Panic Attacks, Protective Kara Danvers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-26
Updated: 2019-02-26
Packaged: 2019-11-05 20:56:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17926205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scrappylittlegleek/pseuds/scrappylittlegleek
Summary: Lena wakes up in the middle of the night after having a nightmare and calls Kara. Kara being the overprotective best friend that she is, immediately rushes to her aid.





	What Are Friends For?

**Author's Note:**

> Trigger Warning- mention of panic attacks

Lena’s eyes opened as she sat up with a start. Her heart was racing and her palms were sweaty.  It felt like she had just run a marathon, she was absolutely exhausted. But she knew she wasn’t going to be falling asleep anytime soon. She looked around her room quickly then felt around herself to confirm her surroundings. Lena breathed a sigh of relief once she was sure she was still in bed. She was still in her room, and nothing had happened.

It had just all felt so real.

Her hands were shaking and she was cold all over which made it harder to convince herself that she was okay. The darkness of the room seemed to swallow her hole and send shivers down her spine.

Lena wrapped her arms around herself and closed her eyes as she let out a shaky breath. _It was just a dream. It didn’t actually happen. I’m okay,_ she tried to remind herself. But the words she told herself weren’t convincing at all. They did nothing to fight the images from earlier that continued to replay themselves in her mind. They mocked her and erased the minimal comfort she’d been attempting to give herself. They told her she was a fool for trying to offer herself comfort, because it wasn’t going to work, no matter what she did.

Lena inhaled sharply and closed her eyes. She just needed to collect her thoughts so she could breathe again. She needed to start thinking rationally. But clearly, rational thinking was out of the question as she was reaching for the cell phone on her nightstand and dialing Kara’s number.

She knew there was no way Kara was going to pick up. She didn’t care. She didn’t want to talk, she didn’t even want to leave a voice mail. She just wanted to hear Kara’s voice on the message receiver. She needed to hear her soothing and familiar tone to remind herself that she really was okay, or at least she would be eventually. She needed to ground herself, which she always did best when Kara was around. But Kara couldn’t be here now, so the generic message receiver she left would have to be enough for now.  

If Lena were in a sound state of mind, she surely would have laughed at how she was acting now. Though calling Kara in the middle of the night because she’d had a nightmare wasn’t the most absurd things she’d ever done, it was pretty high up on the list. But as long as Kara didn’t answer her phone, she would never have to know this had happened and everything would be okay.

However, the one time Lena didn’t want Kara to pick up, she answered after the first ring.

“Lena, are you okay? It’s like 1 am,” Kara asked with a yawn.

Lena inhaled sharply. Tears stung in her eyes at the question. Because no, she wasn’t okay. She wasn’t okay at all. She hadn’t realized just how not-okay she was until just now when all of the emotion and fear came rushing back and hit her like a truck.

But she couldn’t tell Kara that. She couldn’t inconvenience her anymore, especially not at this hour in the morning.

“Yeah, I-- I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have called,” Lena breathed. But her voice broke, which made her already very weak argument even less convincing.

“Lena, you don’t sound okay, what’s going on?”

Lena bit her lip as the tears that bubbled in the corner of her eyes began to spill over.

“I-- I just had a nightmare but I-- I’m sorry, I’ll be fine. I can-- I don’t want to bother you,” Lena said and wiped away her tears in a failed attempt to compose herself. She needed to get it together. She had to be up by six, she needed to stop crying and go back to bed.

“No, you’re not bothering me at all,” Kara said softly.

Lena sniffled as the tears began to fall again. She wasn’t even sure why she was so upset, but she couldn’t get herself to snap out of it. It was just that Kara was so sweet and kind, and she cared. She cared _so_ much, which was something that was still so foreign and scary to Lena. But at the same time, it was so nice.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Kara suggested.

Lena wrapped her free arm around herself protectively. Hearing Kara’s voice only made her wish she was there to hug her and make it all go away.

“No… not now… I’m sorry,” Lena said quietly.

“You don’t need to apologize, it’s okay. Do you want me to come over?” Kara offered.

Lena bit her lip. It was incredibly selfish, but she really did want Kara to come over. She wanted to see her smile, and she needed to _see_ her when she spoke. She needed to look Kara in the eye, and know she was real, and she wasn’t going to disappear or run away.

Lena hadn’t realized how much she needed someone to be physically there for her until recently. Kara was partially to blame for that. She’d gotten freaked out over something, it was probably irrelevant but it seemed like everything at the time. And Kara had taken Lena’s hands in her own and gave her a calming smile. She’d sat right beside her until Lena felt comfortable enough to move closer to her, which was when Kara pulled Lena into a hug. Before Lena knew it, she was cuddled up against her best friend with her head resting on Kara’s chest while Kara held her tightly.

Ever since then, whenever Lena was feeling particularly upset she would yearn for someone else to be there and help ease the pain. More often than not, the person she wanted was Kara, though she would never admit that.

But Lena knew this was wrong. So she had been working on suppressing this need. She was aware that it was incredibly childish of her to want someone to hold her every time she cried. She knew it was silly to even wish Kara could be there for her now. She also knew to give into this would only make it harder for her to get used to dealing with her emotions alone.

But right now, she couldn’t bring herself to deny Kara’s offer. So she let herself indulge just this once. As long as she didn’t make a habit out of it, everything would be okay.

It took less than fifteen minutes before Kara arrived at Lena’s penthouse. By the time she got there, Lena was too relieved to question how that was humanly possible, and instead all but threw herself into Kara’s arms.

They stood still and silent, hugging each other for what felt like forever. But the moment was broken when Lena pulled away and let out a yawn, which made Kara’s heart melt.

She then guided Lena to her room, where she melted into her bed. Kara sat down beside her, but Lena made sure to keep a safe distance between the two.

“Lena… what happened?” Kara asked softly.

Lena sighed and looked down at her lap. She was overcome with shame at the thought of explaining it all. It just seemed so stupid, there was no reason for her to be so upset.

“It-- it’s really… I just-- I had a nightmare and it… I don’t know, it just freaked me out,” she admitted.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?”

Lena drew in a breath. Maybe it would feel better to say it, no matter how ridiculous it was. “I--  I was at L Corp. I was at the meeting-- the one tomorrow-- with the board,” she clarified. “And I-- I got up to present and I couldn’t breathe. And before I knew it I was having a panic attack in front of everyone,” Lena’s voice broke. She looked up at Kara, her eyes filled with tears.

“It was so bad, everyone was watching and I-- I didn’t know how to stop it. And now I-- what if it really does happen?” Lena looked to Kara for help as she willed herself not to cry.

“Okay, if anything does happen tomorrow, you can always call me and I’ll be there for whatever you need,” Kara said calmly. “I know you’re really stressed about this, but you’re prepared Lena, you’re gonna get through it.”

Lena looked back down at her lap, still seemingly unconvinced.

“Is it okay if I touch you?” Kara asked hesitantly.

Lena nodded, and Kara gently pulled Lena closer to her. She embraced Lena so that Lena was completely cuddled up against her, with her head laying on Kara’s chest. Lena softened against Kara and allowed herself to unclench her fists, which had been balled up out of nerves. She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding in and finally allowed herself to begin to relax.

“You’re going to be okay,” Kara said softly and pressed a kiss to Lena’s forehead.

Heat rushed to Lena’s face, and her cheeks turned bright red. Luckily, it was dark enough that Kara wouldn’t be able to see her sudden change in complexion.

“Thank you,” Lena mumbled and stifled a yawn.

“For what?”

“For being here. For always being there for me,” Lena said softly.

Kara smiled and bit her lip.

“Well, what are friends for?”

**Author's Note:**

> So I wasn't going to post this, but I decided to because there's probably someone out there feeling something to what Lena's feeling so my hope was maybe someone could relate to this.  
> Maybe I'll regret posting it later.  
> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
